He has been off the maintenance plan since the end of the 2013-14 regular season, and all 20 games he missed last season were directly tied to specific on-court injuries. This season, his only absence was to tend to his hospitalized son.

“I didn’t do it last year and I’m not doing it this year,” Wade said of targeting games to rest, particularly in back-to-backs. “When I’m not playing, it’s because I can’t play. This is an old conversation. I didn’t do it last year, so why are we having this conversation? It was two years ago. Stop bringing up old stuff.”

His statement could not be clearer, and his actions are consistent with that thought. Wade might be worn down in the second game of back-to-backs, he looked that way Monday in Atlanta, but he intends to play them.

Erik Spoelstra discussed it as well and reiterated, as he did at the start of training camp, that there is no targeted rest plan for Wade. The team is operating as if Wade will be available every night.

“We’ll communicate every single day to see how he feels,” Spoelstra said. “That discussion will be between (trainer Jay Sabol), Dwyane and myself. That will be over-communicated. We feel we’ve been able to manage his minutes so far early on this season. The rest of the season will tell us.”

All of that being said, Wednesday at Brooklyn would be a logical opportunity for the Heat to persuade Wade to take a break. He has been playing through fatigue and general soreness the past two games, and the Nets have the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference at 7-17.

Wade turns 34 next month and has had a few rough games this year, but is putting up good numbers overall at 18 points and 4.5 assists per game. He is averaging 29.8 minutes, which would be the lowest of his career, though some of that is attributable to him sitting some fourth quarters in games that were decided.